During the Reed Ceremony, young women dance bare-breasted for the Zulu king, in a custom celebrating keeping girls as virgins until marriage. ( MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images)

The Commission for Gender Equality in South Africa has ruled that university scholarships offered to female virgins were unlawful and should be discontinued. The controversial scheme, unveiled in January by the mayor of the Uthukela municipality in KwaZulu-Natal province, Dudu Mazibuko, aimed to reduce the spread of AIDS and child pregnancies. Mazibuko told media at the time that the virginity tests would not be carried out by officials of the region or universities, because schoolgirls had already undergone examinations as part of an annual ceremony hosted by the Zulu king.

A festival is celebrated before the Zulu king after girls have passed virginity testing at their homes. (RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP/Getty Images)

South African girls prepare themselves for the Reed Dance ceremony at the eNyokeni Royal Palace in the KwaZulu-Natal region. (MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images)

The Commission ruled that financial aid “contingent on a female student’s virginity is fundamentally discriminatory.”

“It goes against the ethos of the constitutional provisions in relation to dignity, equality and discrimination.

This is a disgrace. Where is the UK foreign office in all of this? Aras Amiri now joins another British-Iranian, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, in notorious Evin prison on bogus charges. @foreignofficehttps://t.co/DJX0knhdot